Harrowing day the toughest I’ve known
I WAS filming BT Sport’s Premier League Tonight programme when we were told the horrific news that the Leicester City owner’s helicopter had crashed.
Only minutes earlier we had watched it take off from the pitch. Our studio is in the corner of the King Power Stadium and the helicopter is something we have become used to seeing after matches there.
I was on air with Owen Hargreaves, John Hartson and presenter Jake Humphrey. We were discussing Bournemouth’s excellent start to the season when our director told us to wrap things up.
Normally you would have 30 or 40 seconds to finish your point but the director quickly repeated the instruction. That was when it became clear something incredibly serious had happened.
It had already been a harrowing day with the news that our colleague Glenn Hoddle had been taken ill. Glenn is someone I look up to for all he has achieved in football as a player, a coach and as a pundit. We fell out 20 years ago when I refused to play for the England B team when he was managing the national side. I have since apologised, neither of us hold any grudges and we get on very well.
Everybody at BT thinks so highly of him and it left us in a state of shock as we prepared for
Premier League Tonight. BT Sport’s Score programme was cancelled but the decision was taken for us to go ahead with our show in Leicester. As we went on air we knew that Glenn was responding to treatment but what is supposed to be an upbeat, chatty programme was understandably subdued.
It was during an advert break that we learned about the crash. I have done hundreds of TV and radio broadcasts in the last few years but after hearing such awful news, your mind goes into overdrive.
There are no words. Only moments earlier you had seen the helicopter take off. All you can think about are the people on board. In the studio people are checking that everyone in the crew is OK.
Jake is a very experienced, unflappable broadcaster. He delivered the news with his usual professionalism but all of us in the studio — both in front of and behind the camera — were visibly shaken. Saturday was certainly the toughest day I have experienced as a broadcaster. I’m sure my colleagues feel the same.
We were evacuated straight after going off-air and taken out a back entrance of the stadium. I could see the smoke coming from an area which had already been cordoned off but we were quickly ushered away.
That evening I drove straight up to Scotland, where I would be covering yesterday’s Betfred Cup semi-finals. You want to do the best job you can but after such tragic events, football pales into insignificance. It does not matter who wins or loses, who played well or whether it was correct to award a penalty.
My only thoughts are with Glenn — to whom I wish a speedy recovery — and everyone at Leicester City. Saturday was a terrible day for the whole football family.